This is a Hero
by NerfHerder101
Summary: One-shots on the Avatar Aang, his twelve month journey from boy to hero, and everyone he belives in. Some Kataang
1. Man of Dreams

He wasn't the man of her dreams.

When the fortune teller told her she would love a strong bender, she imagined a man a head taller than her, not four inches shorter (maybe more like three or two, he had grown)

She thought of someone with long flowing hair, not bald. (Definitely not bald)

Muscles tensing this dream would leap into action saving the day. (his muscles didn't tense, and he sometimes faltered, but he was a hero)

With strong warm arms he would bundle her up and whisk her off her feet. (they road a flying bison, with her brother and a lemur and another girl)

For all that he was and wasn't, when he blushed and held her hand, leading her away from danger and darkness, she blushed and held on tight. (because in reality, dreams don't come true and Katara thought maybe she could live with that)


	2. Losing Themselves

She was losing him

He was losing himself.

She remembers when he woke up and wanted to go penguin sliding.

He wants to remember what it was like to have fun.

Four elements.

Fire, hot and painful, dangerous and pure; Zuko

Earth, strong and steadfast, loyal and unyielding; Toph

Air… did he float? He felt so heavy, so burdened; Aang

Water, she believed it would give her freedom – it gave her him; Katara

Four friends.

Sokka, Zuko, Toph, Suki

Twelve months.

Run, hide, run, hide

Learn Aang, you have to know it. We die if you don't.

Katara laughed-sobbed when she thought of him. His confession. His escape.

She could imagine his legs pumping, with air rushing to propel him as he covered the landscape in leaps and bounds.

She wanted to imagine him smiling.

Aang walked away from the camp, slept and wished he would dream forever.

He woke up and saw the difference around him, nothing like the small camp of makeshift tents he had drifted from.

He felt his mouth stretching towards the sky. Giant Lion-Turtles make great hide-aways.

She wanted to support him.

He didn't understand why they couldn't understand.

But she knew the fire lord could not be allowed to stay alive with his power.

But he knew they were scared, that they had not been raised with the principles of a now dead culture, that he was the last of his kind and killing was betraying and he wasn't sure he could do that.

When he returned, she thought she saw new light in his eyes – a glimmer of the shining globes they had been.

When Katara came into view he met her eyes, there had been no resolution with his past lives, but it came to a climax.

She saw resolve in his eyes.

He had made a decision.

No delaying.

Do or die.

Clash in the sky, destroy the Earth. fire kills, and kills, and kills and burns. He sees the scars on Katara's arm and sees that Ozai's eyes are the color of brimstone and hell lies beneath them.

Katara is not with him and that feels like a betrayal in itself. Run, don't die Katara, you have a job, can't let Aang do everything (though she know he is and that she is but one of the pawns, allowed once to jump two spaces, but limited to one for the rest of that large game. He is the Queen.)

Fight, don't die Aang, they're all counting on you Aang, how can you let them down? How can you let them fight and die, fight and be hurt, fight and fight... His decision, he is unsure. To kill or not to kill – it shouldn't be a question.

Her lightning is fast, but Zuko is amazingly stubborn. Azula is down.

His fire burns hotter, but Aang has more important things to worry about. Fire Lord Ozai is trapped to a rock by a small boy with tattoos across his body and unsure eyes that echo the world.

Katara can do nothing but wait for him. She hopes he knows that she'll always wait. (She really wants to see him smile once more, a real smile, the one that reaches his whole being and works like a disease on everyone around him and contaminates the world.)

Aangs hand lies on Ozai and the energy converses around him. Light flow from the orifices of Ozai's body, leaving, dispersing – Ozai does not move and Aang is tired.

Katara waits.

Aang finds himself. Ozai breathes in, and the smell of sulfur leaves him. A self-destructive King at the hands of the mighty Queen.

Weeks later, he is letting an almost smile show. And Katara is sure that when he leads her outside, holding her hand, touching her, feeling their skin shift against the other's, that things are getting closer to good.

When he kisses her, she finds them.


End file.
